Patient power taking center stage at event

As many pharma companies have finally realized the relevance of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for communicating with patients, their focus is expanding to include accountability, or at least the social-media equivalent. That shift is highlighted by the agenda of an upcoming leadership summit devoted to exploring, among other topics, whether health social media is driving meaningful change.

The summit, called Socialpalooza, will bring together four main groups—pharma and health company execs, health digital consultants and agency leaders, entrepreneurs from patient-centric startup companies, and online health influencers—to discuss the kinds of business results one should expect from having a presence on social channels.

Wego Health is producing the event in Boston this Thursday.

The gathering will feature demos from several fledgling companies seeking to deliver ROI, as it were, in the social-media space by meeting community needs. These start-ups are Epy.io, which makes widgets designed to help public-health agencies and others monitor community health trends; Meddik, which aims to give consumers a better way to search for health information and find support; 1eq, maker of devices and apps that enable users to track workouts and monitor diet; and TRUVIO, a consumer influencer-powered, voice-response mobile research platform.

New ways to engage with health activists will also be a major subject for discussion. Attendees from companies—including the likes of Johnson & Johnson, EMD Serono and Novartis—will be charged with generating ideas for new companies that engage with online health influencers—companies that don't yet exist but perhaps should. To narrow the field, their ideas will be voted on by Wego Health's panel of consumer activists.

Following Socialpalooza, this Friday, September 27, MM&M will post an exclusive report on attendees' top five strategies for patient-powered start-ups. Then, be sure to tune into mmm-online.com next Monday, September 30, to see the results of the voting by Wego's health activists. May the best patient-empowered idea(s) win!